Burnt Offerings

Man, being a thrash fan in the mid 90s must have been tough. While I wasn't even conceptualized during those times, it's not hard to see why the scene wasn't at it best during the this time period; The biggest representatives and thrash's fathers, the collective known as the Big 4 (Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax) were releasing some of their most critically panned albums. Why were Hetfield and Lars writing blues rock out of the sudden? Why did Mustaine, in his never-ending quest of reaching his old band's popularity, even if that meant releasing even more uninspiring music than them, tried to out-uninspire them? Why did it take us almost 30 years to realize Anthrax always sucked? Just kidding on that last one, Anthrax receives more hate than deserved, but that's another whole topic of discussion. Point being, the golden age of thrash metal, leaded by the likes of albums like Ride The Lighting, Reign in Blood, where chromatic scales, exaggerated double bass drumming and youthful attitude were the norm, was coming to an end.

But on even on the blackest clouds there's a silver lining, and it came in the form of the new wave of thrash metal bands that emerged during the mid and even late 90s. Iced Earth were one of those bands (even if they entered the party early, releasing their first full length debut album on 1991), whose mixing of thrash and power metal was an exciting sight to be seen. However, they were held back on their first two albums by subpar vocals. If the band wanted to keep going, a change had to be made.

And boy what a change; say goodbye to the drunk rants of Gene Adam and the unimpressive screeching of John Greely and say hello to Matt Barlow on his first entry of what would become Iced Earth's own golden years. His baritone, almost operatic vocal technique not only was a technical improvement over past singers, but also helped texturize the music, giving it a more solemn and somber feel. This is also helped by Jon Schaffer's more aggressive songwriting. His Iron Maiden-inspired galloping riffing sounds meatier and meaner, as if he's releasing all of the frustration he had with the music industry at the time onto us. This is easily Iced Earth's darkest album, both from a musical and a lyrical standpoint. The title track paints a crude image of Schaffer's reflections of the troubles Iced Earth had had in the past years and throughout their careers up to that point, as previously stated;

These are not idle threats my friends
We're slaughtering the lambs
True vengeance is on the rise
The traitors shall be damned
Cast their bodies to the flames

The album's sound is oppressing and suffocating, enhanced by the echoed production work, making the riffs of songs like Diary or Burning Oasis hit gracefully. The solos, while not overly technical, get the job done. One worth of notice is the one heard at 2:23 in Brainwashed, which is one of the most wicked solos I've heard in power/thrash

Of course you can't speak of Burnt Offerings without mentioning the final track, the epic to end all epics, Dante's Inferno. Clocking at 16 minutes, it's the longest track Iced Earth has put out (if you don't count the Something Wicked and Gettysburg trilogies). Being a re-telling of the Inferno segment of Dante Alighieri's epic poem, the Divine Comedy, it's a masterful exhibition of metal and literature marriage.

Burnt Offerings is one of, if not the best album Iced Earth has made. It displays the best qualities of the band, and they'd only get bigger (but maybe not better) from here onwards. Something wicked was coming, and Burnt Offerings was the first of it.